On Aug. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Provider Compliance Interactive Map, which provides state-by-state information for organizations that monitor compliance for CMS. The map lists organizations' contact information including websites, email addresses and phone numbers. The map also provides brief descriptions of the types of monitoring performed by each organization.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected to publish a final rule which will announce a delay in the compliance date for ICD-10. As the AASM previously announced, CMS published a proposed rule in April which recommended a one-year delay to the implementation of ICD-10. The new date of compliance would be Oct. 2014. CMS solicited comment on the proposed delay.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new fraud prevention partnership comprised of both private and public players. The companies and public organizations have joined efforts to “share information and best practices in order to improve detection and prevent payment of fraudulent health care billings.” Specifically, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder identified a desire to share tips about schemes, billing codes and “geographical fraud hotspots” to encourage quick action. The partnership includes a number of large insurance plans as well as both the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Justice.

On July 18, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) introduced legislation to extend Medicare physician payment rates for one year. The bill, called the Assuring Medicare Stability and Access for Seniors Act of 2012, addresses projected cuts to overall payment described in the CY 2013 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule. The proposed rule, published earlier this month, includes an almost 30% cut to the conversion factor, which is used to establish payment rates for all physician services under Medicare.

On Friday, July 6 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule recommending changes to payment for the Medicare program for calendar year (CY) 2013. Recommendations made in the proposed rule will be reviewed and, based on comment from the public, may be finalized in the final rule which will be published in November.

In simultaneous announcements distributed by all four DME MACs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a change to the refill requirements for DMEPOS items and supplies provided on a recurring basis. The new requirements cover a number of different types of DMEPOS including but not limited to CPAP.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will release a Comparative Billing Report (CBR) addressing Evaluation and Management Services on June 4.

Join the AASM International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD) Revision Task Force members on Tuesday June 12 from 2:45-4:45pm at SLEEP 2012 for the discussion "Developing ICSD-3: Work to Date and Future Directions." The discussion group is chaired by Dr. Michael Sateia, chair of the ICSD Revision Task Force.